AustLit
It Just Lies There from the Beginning : Aboriginal Stories and Poems from the Top End
selected work
dreaming story
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Notes
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Foreword: 'These stories from the Belyuen area have been written and collected by Marjorie Bil Bil over the last three years. Many were first recorded on cassette in one of the five languages spoken by Marjorie, and then translated by her into English. Marjorie has also illustrated each story.
Through this collection Marjorie emphasises the importance of storytelling as an educational process and for the maintenance of culture and language. Marjorie says that storytelling was, and still is, an important way of keeping her culture alive and of passing on cultural and educational messages. She also sees storytelling as a useful way of getting her people together.
Not only is Marjories Bil Bil an accomplished storyteller, but also an outstanding adult educator committed to cultural maintenance, language survival and community development.' Jack Frawley, Batchelor College.
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First published by Batchelor College in Kularlaga : A Journal of Aboriginal Adult Education No 6 1993. (Source: verso of tp.).
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Contents indexed selectively.
Contents
- My Story, single work short story (p. 1)
- They Used to Dance All Nighti"Once upon a time there were six language groups", single work poetry (p. 3)
- Then That Man Named Captain Cook Came Ashorei"Long time before the white men came along the Top End", single work poetry (p. 4)
- Most People Loved Their Bushtuckeri"The Aboriginal people were bought into the community.", single work poetry (p. 6)
- Our Land, Our Life and Our Heritagei"It made me think of my lovely country with all our bushtucker", single work poetry (p. 7)
- The Land it Belongs to Traditional Larrakiya Peoplei"We went to the meetings with traditional Larrakiya people", single work poetry (p. 8-9)
- Learning About Language, Learning About Foodi"The first thing i learned was speaking language.", single work poetry (p. 11)
- So All These Things Come Togetheri"Art is learned by telling stories", single work poetry (p. 12-13)
- And Now She is Really Good, Art Paintingi"This lady wanted to do art painting, this was last year", single work poetry (p. 14-15)
- There Was a Song Mani"About the song,", single work poetry (p. 16)
- Then the Language Changed, single work life story (p. 17)
- And the Bush Medicine Worked All Right!, single work life story (p. 18-19)
- The Kangaroo and the Porpoise, single work prose dreaming story (p. 20-21)
- How I Learnt from Kunukunu, single work life story (p. 22)
- Let Us Get Some Green Ants, single work life story (p. 23)
- You Are Talking to the Wrong Person, single work life story (p. 24)
- A Crow Came Flying Above Me, single work life story (p. 26)
- The Crab Grabbed Hold of My Hand, single work life story (p. 27)
- The Blue Tongue Lizard, the Rainbow, a Small Flying Fox, and the Whistling Kite, single work prose dreaming story (p. 28)
- Dancing With Our Elders, single work life story (p. 29)
